For me, Retail is like the “eyes of the world.” Whatever’s happening there is often also happening in B2B marketing.
This blog was influenced by a really interesting mailer I received from Think with Google.The article was Shopping then and now: Five ways retail has changed and how businesses can adapt. It’s all about the experience and the trends that are happening within the Retail sector.
If you know me at all, you’ll also know that I always talk about Human to Human marketing rather than B2B marketing.
So, I went shopping this last Saturday just to do a bit of personal research on Oxford street. I was interested to see what it’s like to shop in the centre of London in these Covid times.
Overall observation.
I completely understand these are crazy times, but I unexpectedly found the whole experience incredibly frustrating and very difficult.
(And please note, the following isn’t a comment or judgment on whether masks are a good thing or a bad thing.) I found it uncomfortable whilst wearing a mask to interact with sales people also with masks on. It made me feel the shop assistants were quite detached, even unfriendly and a little impatient with their shoppers.
Is Covid compliance perhaps overshadowing the focus on the customer experience?
Jeffrey Shaw (in Lingo,) speaks about how he visited high end shops to see how they deliver their service to try to understand the language of his customers.
In the same way, to me as a marketer, shopping also gives me:
- An idea of what people are buying;
- How products are being laid out to entice;
- It was also a window on how different brands approach marketing to people.
So the short of it was the experience that I absolutely love, has been impacted severely. I’m not sure that I will be shopping in the city centre for a very long time. I think I’m going to become a confirmed online shopper. It’s a significant shift for me. That’s what Google thinks too. And are you sure you haven’t allowed Covid to impact your B2B Marketing?
Big Shift One. Shoppers are having a much better experience shopping online than shopping offline.
So that’s going to happen to all the big city spaces, the big office blocks and, of course, now the retailers? Let’s see what happens.
Also what interested me was price is not the biggest consideration when people are shopping online. Convenience is now a huge factor. They want to make sure that they can get everything delivered to their home.
That makes it easy, and they understand the timelines. So in other words, I can shop today, get it tomorrow. Whereas it used to be shop today, get it in five days.
And though price seems less of a priority, it does need to be very clear and easily understood. And they really want to see reviews from other people that have bought from you.
As a B2B marketer make sure your pricing is incredibly visible, and that your UX (user experience) is tested all the time.
Are visitors having a good experience when they come to your website, or are you making them go through hurdles? You really need to keep your content as ungated as possible in order to create a really positive experience.
Also make sure those reviews are visible everywhere. Make sure your customers can easily learn that other customers are having a fantastic experience with your brand.
Big Shift Two. The increase in online research before purchasing is significant.
There’s been huge growth in online research. Shoppers want to gain as much information as possible.
I’ve told my customers for years, their customers will do their research long before they talk to a salesperson. They’re going to be coming to you as incredibly well educated customers.
My son just recently bought a car. He spent about three days online. Built a pro’s and con’s spreadsheet. He went through everything with a fine toothed comb. And when he went to make his purchase, the salesman didn’t need to do a sales job on him. He’d made his mind up already.
B2B customers are doing this as well. They are making decisions before they meet you. So where should your focus be as a B2B business?
What I want you to think about is Search and SEO. Are you investing in these two areas?
Do you really know what your customers are searching for? Or are you simply assuming that they’re searching for you and your products?
Your customers are searching to solve problems. So you need to:
- Make sure you know what they’re searching for;
- Know what searches have suddenly increased;
- Know what you need to be writing content for;
- Are you investing in SEO? So in other words, are you making sure that you appear for these search terms?
Search and SEO are two areas that are really key.
If you haven’t someone on your team who is a SEARCH/ SEO specialist, please get in touch. I’ve a brilliant colleague who I can put you in touch with.
Top tools to empower your strategic thinking?
- Is the search trend your friend? Use Google Trends to keep you up to date. As they say “Explore what the world is searching.” Is there a trend that you can piggyback on with one of your products?
- Looking to drive more traffic? Neil Patel has a great tool called Uber Suggest, which gives you a host of info you need to enhance your SEO results.
- Have you added Live Chat to your website? Ideally you want a chatbot designed for different stages of the customer journey. I.e. if they’re on the checkout page, you really want the chat bot to be talking to them about the checkout process.
- Do you know exactly what your customers are doing on your website? Use heatmap tools like Hotjar and Crazy Egg to track and understand how visitors are using your website. Can you improve your user experience?
- How do you attribute your sales? Attribution and measuring in marketing is going to be more and more important as we get more and more digital.
I’d really recommend that you have a data specialist in your team who can help you get the best out of the data that you collect.
If you’re looking for a specialist or just more info on what you need to be measuring and how to attribute sales, please get in touch.
Most importantly, remember that we will come to the end of this pandemic. It may not feel it sometimes but it will pass, and when it does, what do you want your B2B marketing to look like? So hold those big, big blue sky meetings.
And remember that the most important thing at this time is to be agile. Know that your customers’ needs are going to change and you need to adapt and grow as they do.